Poachers and fish beware, this ocean drone is on your trail
We don't usually think of drones as operating over open water, but Aerovel's Flexrotor drone was designed to do just that.
Flexrotor can land and take off vertically like a helicopter, without the need for any additional infrastructure on the deck of a ship. This gives the vehicle the ability to operate from almost any vessel. Once airborne, Flexrotor transitions to horizontal flight, which allows the vehicle a much longer range of operation.
"What they were intended for was to go out and spot tuna or anything that you needed to find in an austere environment where manned aircraft are no longer safe," says Matt Parker, vice president of Precision Integrated Programs, a company signed up to be the launch customer for Flexrotor.
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here